A plague of earwigs.

[Margaret]

I have a very large number of earwigs on my allotment this year and wonder if anyone else has the same problem.

[James Cheshire]

Have you had a lot of rain so far this year? I've found they're most abundant when the weather's been consistently wet through spring and early summer.

[Diane Whitehead]

I disliked them until the year we had trees defoliated by the recently introduced winter moth. The caterpillars ate all the flowers of the fruit trees too. Then I saw earwigs carrying caterpillars away. There weren’t enough to make much of a difference, but my feelings towards earwigs certainly changed.

[Margaret]

Hi James, We had a wet winter in London but an incredibly dry Spring. It got to the stage where they were threatening a hosepipe ban.  The allotment soil is light and free draining, the beds are edged with wood which in some areas has started to rot, and the paths are covered with wood chippings. I often see a dozen or more earwigs when pulling a weed but recently tidying away my seed trays I was shocked by hundreds of them between the trays. I would like to try and change my growing conditions so as to be less attractive to them.

[Margaret]

Hi Diane, I had winter moth on my pear tree this year. Very disappointing. I didn't see any earwigs on the tree but they would be hiding during the day. I will try and remember some of their good points when they come scurrying out of lettuce all over the worktop or leave the dahlias in ribbons.